EDITORIAL: States resist setting up exchanges for ObamaCare

More than half of the U.S. governors are refusing to set up ObamaCare insurance exchanges, a situation President Obama and Democrats likely never imagined.

The exchanges, operated by either the states serving as conduits of federal funds or completely controlled by the federal government, are essential to make the national health plan work.

Fewer than 20 states, not including Michigan, are projected to have their own exchanges by Oct. 1, 2013. That is the date exchanges are to go online for uninsured people to shop for coverage for 2014, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Not a single Republican congressman or senator voted in March 2010 for the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," known as ObamaCare.

The Hill, a media outlet focusing on Washington politics, said the Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have refused to set up their own systems.

A majority of governors don't want to get stuck with the expense of setting up and operating exchanges, it said. Another problem is not all of the ObamaCare regulations are written.

The case will be returned to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

"Today's ruling breathes new life into our challenge to ObamaCare," Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which filed the suit on behalf of the Christian school in Lynchburg, Va. "Our fight against ObamaCare is far from over."

Liberty's lawsuit argues ObamaCare violates religious freedom by requiring the school to purchase a health care policy that could indirectly contribute to the funding of abortion and birth control. And that, it is argued, would be a violation of the traditional separation of church and state.

It seems ObamaCare will face many obstacles until the first dollar of medical coverage is paid, and that is no sure bet.